The use of artificial body parts is causing dehumanisation in the medical practice. I have spoken with people who have trained in recent years and I can see how much of the training has become very "success" or "failure" based. With many simple tasks such as stitching up a patients wound that have been practised beforehand on a "wound closure pad". Where the student will then receive a passing or failing mark. Does this make the treatment of people more like a game where, you can either achieve your goal or fail. Does it remove the focus from each individual and the specific case or illness they have presented with?

Dehumanisation in the medical practice has been a large issue for many decades, I ask are we coming even closer to treating patients more like objects that need to be fixed, than people who have presented with an illness or ailment that needs to be addressed.

Ragnar, You make a very valid point. I would not suggest that we should return to a rather medieval teaching practice, however I am interested in peoples opinions regarding the matter.
If we continue on the path we are currently on, promoting the use of such training aids, are we in some way pushing away from the treatment of patients?

I am not sure at which point we would find our middle ground, the use of cadavers in medical training is still commonplace, this allows students to examine the body as a whole, having a somewhat personal interaction with not only the human form but also a person who may have been a patient before their arrival on table. However cadavers are not always available. Creating a market for artificial human parts to be used in training.

I suppose that I have two questions really, how can we create training tools in the future that allow us to take into account the variety and complexity of individual circumstances? And, Could artificial human parts be designed to in some way allow doctors to keep their ability to treat a person, rather than providing a solution to the problem presented to them?

I must also say that I have no medical background. However I am interested in medical design, as I am a design student. This is one area that I am interested in.

Thank you for your comment, I hope that I have in some way clarified my intentions for setting forth this debate.